New Hampshire. Tonight.

Tonight, I'll be waiting for a flight (home!!!) at the airport... So no worries, I'll be here with you for at least the first 90 minutes of New Hampshire primary results. It seems we all know the "winner" already, but there may yet be some real intrigue as we see who actually "wins" the expectations game and following media cycle.

Oh, and later this week we'll be talking more about how the series of events and political theatrics since Iowa and New Hampshire affect this guy. So stay tuned here at Nevada Progressive. Tonight should be fun.

Thanks, G-O-TEA, for Bursting Mittens' Bubble

Rick Santorum must be giddy right now. Instead of suffering an intense media focus on his role in John Ensign's career ending scandal, Mitt Romney just tossed him a reprieve... And a ready-made issue that may yet end Romney's political career. As we've been talking about endlessly here, Romney has a BIG Bain (as in, Bain Capital) problem.

And now, all of a sudden, Newt Gingrich is jumping on it...

“You have to ask the question, is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of people and then walk off with the money?”

Who said it — Elizabeth Warren? Dennis Kucinich? Noam Chomsky?

Not quite, that was Newt Gingrich talking to reporters at an energy company in Manchester on Monday about his new effort to paint Mitt Romney as a greedy one-percenter who finds “clever legal ways” to go about “looting a company” while screwing over its workers. [...]

The former Speaker is making the case that, in contrast to good old fashioned businesses who make stuff, Romney and his ilk have instead gamed the system to create a soulless machine that profits from the misery of others. Whereas Republicans used to merely whisper that Bain was an electability problem for Romney, Gingrich and other candidates are now openly making the case that the invisible hand has failed to stop corporate raiders from hurting American workers — even as they condemn President Obama as a radical socialist for his rhetoric on Wall Street.

“I am totally for capitalism, I am for free markets,” Gingrich assured reporters on Monday. “Nobody objects to Bill Gates being extraordinarily rich, they provide a service.” What he instead is concerned about is when an investor receives “six-to-one returns, and the company goes bankrupt.”

OUCH! And to add insult to injury...

When you go to South Carolina, that was one of those cities that had a business -- it was a photo album and a framing business. And those people are out of work today after Bain Capital basically gut the company. Took $20 million of profit out of it and people lost their jobs. There is a steel manufacturer here in South Carolina. Mitt Romney will have a hard time coming into South Carolina and have the people here think he's anything but a rich Wall Streeter that took advantage of their businesses. People lost their jobs, they lost their pensions, they lost a lot.

The bottom line for Bain was making money. It wasn't about helping the people of South Carolina or trying to keep these people employed. The idea that Mitt stood up and said he's worried about pink slips. This is probably one of the richest people ever to run for president of the United States. Son of a multi-millionaire. An individual -- Mitt Romney has never worried about pink slip. He might have worried about not having enough of them to hand out. But he's not worried about losing his job.

Whoops. I guess Mittens really does have a growing problem on his hands.

And you know what's really funny here? In their zeal for attacking Mittens and destroying his Presidential aspirations, they're actually doing a good job in articulating why their own G-O-TEA policies have failed America. No really, think about it.

Who's been making noise about "vulture capitalists" like Mitt Romney for the last 30 years? And who's been trying to get Americans to realize the consequences of deregulation and "supply side" mayhem? And who's been offering alternative economic policies that really work in creating jobs and providing more stability?

And now, it's none other than the Republican clown car circus of candidates themselves that are reminding Americans of why President Obama deserves reelection. Thank you, G-O-TEA. And I actually mean it. ;-)

Maybe Nevada Does Matter, After All?

Now that Mitt Romney's real record of "job cremation" has come to the forefront...

“I would not put the cart before the horse and define him as an unambiguous frontrunner,” DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz told TPM in an interview at St. Anselm College in Manchester. “He’s coming off what at some point probably won't even be defined as a win in Iowa where fewer voters came out for him than came out in 2008.” She added that anything less than 50% in New Hampshire should be interpreted as a sign of weakness given his close ties to the state. [...]

“Mitt Romney, I think, is more of a job cremator than a job creator,” Schultz said. She added: “He was a corporate buyout specialist at Bain Capital. He dismantled companies. He cut jobs. He forced companies into bankruptcy and he outsourced jobs and sent jobs overseas. That’s not a record to write home about, that’s not a record to be proud of, and it’s something voters need to know.”

The other Republican candidates are ready to pounce. Apparently, some in the G-O-TEA are already getting sick and tired of a certain someone's "pious baloney"...



While others are, strangely enough, getting sick and tired of the media. For all his desperate pleas for media attention, Jon Huntsman rejects it when he finally gets some.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So what's going on here? The state of the race is in flux yet again. Mitt Romney still can't seal the deal, or even break 20% (!!!!), nationally. And in New Hampshire, the state where he now owns a house and next door to where he was once Governor, he can't even break 40%. The Republican Party faces a weird dilemma where it has a "clear frontrunner" (Romney) who's also simultaneously a "weak frontrunner". But because no single "anti-Romney" has yet emerged, he's been able to skate by with minority support.

Is this about to change?



Enter Sheldon Adelson. Apparently, he's Newt Gingrich's BFF. And apparently, he's just as mad as Newt about Romney trying to steal his "true conservative" thunder. So now, he's about to hit Romney right on his proverbial Achilles' Heel: Bain Capital. And what makes this even worse for Mittens is that "King Adelson of Macau" is about to target Romney in what may be his weakest early primary state: South Carolina, where Romney now clings to a fragile lead that may very soon evaporate once the "tea party" folks coalesce around one of their own.

So apparently, "we matter" again... Just not in the way Jon Ralston had originally imagined/desired. Amy Tarkanian may still be a complete joke who allowed the "tea party" loons to take over the Nevada GOP madhouse, but Sheldon Adelson is the local righties' top "money man" who can have more of an impact on the Republican primary war than any of the "Tark Sharks" could ever dream of. The Nevada GOP Caucus itself still looks to be a total train wreck in the making, but Adelson's emergence as Mitt Romney's worst nightmare ensures ensures that The Silver State will make some sort of impact on this increasingly weird primary fight.

And what really intrigues me here is that Sheldon Adelson indeed plans to hit Mitt Romney on his record of destroying American jobs at Bain Capital. Just as I had suspected last week, the Bain issue isn't just one that Democrats are now testing against Romney. It can also hurt him on the right side of the aisle, since "tea partiers" seem to hate slick "Wall Street elite" shipping American jobs overseas (even if they're all too often tricked into supporting these very policies that lead to the loss of American jobs) as much as all the rest of us. And Adelson clearly knows this, which is why he's targeting Romney's Achilles Heel in the exact state (South Carolina) where it can cause the most damage.

And funny enough, Mittens is playing right into Sheldon Adelson's hands.



So perhaps this G-O-TEA battle royale really isn't over just yet... And maybe Nevada really will play a significant role in it (just not in the way that benefits the Tarkanians or the state party).

Coming This Week...

We'll analyze the latest developments in the G-O-TEA clown car wreck, take a closer look at what's about to happen in New Hampshire, come back to Nevada to look at local races heating up, and take another look at the most organized campaign in the state (President Obama's). This should be fun. So as always, stay tuned!

Frothy Irrelevance?

Right now, everyone is asking what kind of role Nevada's GOP Caucus will have in this primary season. Apparently, there's a good chance it won't mean a hill of beans. We don't know yet how hard Rick Santorum really will be campaigning here, but now the $64,000,000 question is whether Santorum will be able to amass the kind of money he will need to take on Romney in bigger, more expensive, and more media dominant states like Florida and Ohio.

So what is to come in this primary season? That's what we still have to figure out. After all, there must be a reason why John McCain can't even remember Mitt Romney's name.



As we talked about earlier this week, a growing number of Republicans are realizing that they face a major "image problem" with Bain Capital "vulture capitalist" Mitt Romney leading their charge this fall... But how do they stop this speeding train? Can Rick Santorum amass enough money to stay competitive? Or is there enough time for some magical "dark horse" to emerge and stop this?

Nevada Republicans now look to face the ultimate "damned if he does, damned if he doesn't" dilemma. If Romney looks to be wrapping up the nomination by the end of this month, then their caucus really will be irrelevant and they will end up with a whole lot of egg in their faces for caving into New Hampshire's Secretary of State and the RNC so quickly. But if Romney somehow stumbles in the next few days, loses the expectations game in New Hampshire, and allows someone else to gain momentum in South Carolina, then Romney will be under extra pressure to prevent a total meltdown here in Nevada along with a painfully prolonged primary season. So Nevada Republicans now have to pick their poison: either they stay irrelevant by letting Romney coast, or they risk more bruising battles ahead by giving Santorum, Paul, and Co. another look.

But then again, this may mostly be out of their hands. It's all on New Hampshire right now. And regardless of what happens here on the GOP side, the cards will be dealt on Tuesday night... Only for South Carolina and Florida to play those cards out and ultimately determine when Republicans will get a nominee. Perhaps Nevada Republicans have already become irrelevant?

Heller Wants Latino Votes... But Still Farts in Their Faces (& I Commend Coolican!)

He likes them, he really likes them...

U.S. Sen. Dean Heller waded into unfriendly territory today, speaking to a breakfast meeting of Hispanics in Politics and facing tough questions about his stances on immigration. [...]

Expectations were high for the meeting, after an incident last year in which Heller literally turned around while on his way to a meeting with the Latin Chamber of Commerce. Heller’s staff objected to the presence of a staffer for his Senate rival, U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, and a camera at the chamber event.

But Heller stood his ground and sought to identify commonalities with his Hispanic audience Friday morning, promising Latin Chamber President Otto Merida that he’d sit down to discuss an acceptable immigration reform bill.

No, he really doesn't.

He opposes the Dream Act, which, according to The New York Times, “would provide legal status and a path to citizenship to young people who were brought to the United States illegally as children and receive a college education or want to enter the military. Under the bill, students who came to the United States when they were 15 or under, have been in the country continually at least five years, present ‘good moral character,’ graduate from high school or obtain a G.E.D., and complete two years of college or military service in good standing would qualify.” [...]

Heller opposes it. Why? Because the Republican base hates it. Well, that’s not what he said. He said he doesn’t believe American citizens should be denied benefits accrued to noncitizens.

What on earth does he mean by that? During a news conference after the breakfast, he said that under the Dream Act a Nevadan who qualifies for such benefits could go to Nevada state universities and pay in-state tuition, while an American citizen living in Utah would have to pay out-of-state tuition at Nevada state universities.

Are you for real?

Then there’s the dreaded “anchor babies.” Heller signed on to legislation that would end automatic citizenship for babies born in the United States, instead requiring that to qualify for citizenship one parent must already be a citizen.

You can imagine how this utterly un-American policy might offend Hispanics. It offends me because more than likely my ancestors would have been disqualified for citizenship. They came over on a boat from Ireland and had a lot of babies.

I know I've sometimes had spirited disagreements with Patrick Coolican before, but this time he's on the money. Heller is being completely disingenuous... As usual.

We're supposed to applaud Heller for chiding Mitt Romney's disgusting characterization of the DREAM Act as a "handout"... And ignore that Heller is just as cravenly opposed to the DREAM Act as Romney and the rest of the G-O-TEA buffoons?

Does Dean Heller really think Latin@ voters are that stupid? He claims he will work with fellow Republican and Latin Chamber of Commerce President Otto Merida to craft a "mutually agreeable reform bill". Ummm... Hello, Dean Heller! That "mutually agreeable reform bill" would be the same comprehensive immigration legislation that Republicans like recent Republican standard bearers George W. Bush and John McCain supported!

Of course, this isn't new for Dean Heller. He's regularly scapegoated Latinos for basically every perceived moral wrong one can think of! He's regularly twisted the facts and engaged in disgusting demagoguery to win the hearts and minds of paranoid teabaggers. But now that he's managed to show up at Hispanics in Politics and spew out a bunch of "moderate" hot air, we're supposed to forget about what he's actually done in Congress to block progress on comprehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act?

Oh, and by the way, Latin@s care about more than just immigration. They want health care. They want education. They want opportunities to succeed just as much as the rest of us. So how on earth are they supposed to cheer on Dean Heller cheering on Wall Street robber barons as he proposes more painful, job killing, and all in all economically destructive "austerity" on all of us in the other 99%?

Coolican rightly pointed out today that Heller's "civility" at Hispanics in Politics does absolutely nothing to make up for his cowardly pandering to xenophobic teabaggers. If Heller really cared about Latin@ Nevadans, he'd actually match his "civil" words with real actions.

Oh, and by the way, this is why Ralston is probably wrong on his predictions for this year. Latin@ voters proved to be the key to Democratic wins here in Nevada in 2008 and 2010. And as long as Heller and his G-O-TEA buddies continue to fart in Latin@ Nevadans' faces, it won't be that hard for Shelley Berkley to prove Ralston and the other pundits wrong. Mark my words... And take note of the last R-J/8 News poll.

If "It's the Economy, Stupid", Then Who's Really Stupid?

We often hear this usual refrain from the usual media pundits: "This election will be all about the economy." And of course, there have already been countless references to that famous Clinton '92 campaign line I used in the title above. Now we've also heard many of the same pundits talk about how a prolonged focus on economic issues may somehow hurt President Obama's reelection campaign. So I hope they take a closer look at this... And take a really close look at this.

The numbers are out for job creation and it looks pretty good. The unemployment rate went down to 8.5% from [8.6%] and 200,000 jobs were created.

Here is the hidden gem. While looking into the different sectors, I found that the healthcare sector added 23K jobs in December and a total of 315K jobs in 2011. But if we listened to the right wing meme, the Obamacare law should have caused layoffs. Especially considering Obamacare DIRECTLY regulates the health insurance and healthcare industries.

The healthcare industry has seen their profits increase dramatically in 2011 according to [B]loomberg, “..profit margins at the companies widened to levels not seen since before the recession, a Bloomberg Government study shows.” So much for the talking point, that this law is bad for business.

So for all the G-O-TEA talking points about "ObamaCare kills the economy!!!", the health care industry actually ADDED jobs in 2011. There goes another false radical right meme down the drain! Also, take a look at this (with much thanks to Steve Benen for the beautiful charts!).

Overall, the U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in December, but as has been the case for a long while, it’s the private sector that continues to fare better. Last month, businesses added 212,000 jobs, making it one of the best months since the recession began.
For the 2011 calendar year, BLS data shows the U.S. private sector has now added 1.89 million jobs in 2011, well ahead of last year’s private-sector total of 1.2 million, and the best year for businesses since 2005. Since March 2010, American businesses have created 3.13 million jobs. (In 2008, the private sector lost 3.8 million jobs, and in 2009, the private sector lost 5 million jobs.)
And with that, here’s a different homemade chart, showing monthly job losses/gains in the private sector since the start of the Great Recession. The image makes a distinction — red columns point to monthly job totals under the Bush administration, while blue columns point to job totals under the Obama administration.

Just for fun, let’s add one more homemade chart, showing annual job losses/gains in the private sector over the last two decades. Red columns point to years under Republican administrations, blue columns point to job totals under Democratic administrations. (Note: 2011 was the best year for private-sector job growth since 2005, and the second best since 1999.)

Upon looking at the real facts and figures, it looks to be crystal clear that the President really does seem to know what he's doing on the economy. When we put money directly in the hands of working class families, consumer demand rises, jobs are created, and the economy grows. That's why it's so crucial to keep in place the payroll tax cut and continue the progress that President Obama kick-started in 2009.

I have been hearing on TV that the [current good] economic news is good for President Obama. And it is. But it misses the point. The news is good for the American people, for American businesses, for American jobs, for the American consumer. And President Obama is not simply the beneficiary of this good economic trend. He is the architect of it. He held the economy from falling off the cliff with the American Recovery Act, he relentlessly pursued and extended unemployment benefits and preserved the jobs of teachers and firefighters; he fought hard for the middle class and got the payroll tax cut and other targeted measures to inject consumer demand; he brought a 35% tax relief to small businesses for providing health care; he gave the fragile economy some breathing room even as the Republicans were trying to choke it off.

If anyone has any doubts about why the Republicans wanted to eliminate the payroll tax cut for middle class and working class Americans, there is your answer. They do not want positive economic news in an election year. After all, Barack Obama has already taken away national security (see: Osama bin Laden dead), fiscal responsibility (see GOP logic: tax cuts do not need to be paid for except the payroll tax cut), and damn nearly every other issue. Their only hope was to demagogue the economy, and the President's efforts seem to be paying off there too. Darn.

And if these trends continue - if jobs keep being created at a good pace, consumer confidence keeps heading north, new unemployment claims continue heading south, and so forth, there isn't much that will stand in the way of President Obama and a second term.

And that's what scares Republicans the most. As we talked about yesterday, they're freaking out over Mitt Romney's real job destruction record getting more attention. And now that reporters are finally paying more attention to Romney's real record of slashing jobs at Bain Capital, he and the entire G-O-TEA are in trouble.

Remember this MoveOn video from yesterday?



Believe it or not, it gets worse. Not only did Romney's Bain Capital slash 750 jobs at Missouri steel company, GS Technologies, and not only did Romney and Bain slash pension and health care benefits for GST workers, but Bain also had the gall to demand a $44 million federal government bailout of GST because Romney's Bain Capital underfunded GST's pension fund! And Mitt Romney wants to call himself a "job creator"? Seriously?

No wonder why even some Republicans can't hide the reality about Mitt Romney being so hopelessly out of touch with the 99%...



And why other Republicans have to go to such extreme measures to turn attention away from Romney's terrible jobs record.



Congrats, Rick Santorum! You're still crazy!

And Mitt Romney is still a job destroyer. And Barack Obama is still the candidate with the best record on real job creation and good economic stewardship. No wonder why Obama's poll numbers aren't looking so bad now.

BREAKING: Allison Copening NOT Running for Reelection

So now, the question Carson City politicos have been asking for the last six months is finally being answered. From the Senate Democratic Caucus press release:

“Serving the people of Nevada these past three years has been an incredible experience,” Copening stated. “My decision not to run comes with mixed emotions. Helping people is what drives me and I will miss serving in the legislature. That said, when I am no longer in office, I will continue to stay involved as a volunteer advocate for consumers and homeowners.”

Senator Copening was elected in 2008 and was known for working in a bi-partisan fashion bringing all sides to the table in order to reach compromises. Prior to redistricting this seat was evenly split and considered a "swing district". With the drawing of new maps for 2012, the seat has now become a strongly democratic district where Democrats enjoy a significant registration advantage.

While the new SD 6 can still be considered "swingy", it does lean a little more Democratic after redistricting. And considering Copening's controversy over HOA legislation she introduced last session, this may actually help Democrats hold onto the State Senate. In a bad year for Democrats, Benny Yerushalmi came within 5% of stopping Elizabeth Halseth's ascent in SD 9. Now, Democrats hope he can save the fragile Senate majority.

“As a father, a lifelong Nevadan, and a local small business owner, I believe in a better Nevada with a more diverse economy and better schools. Changes need to be made to create jobs, to help our economy thrive, and to ensure that taxpayer money is spent more wisely. But the most important change of all is that our leaders, regardless of background or party, must put aside our differences and work together to address the very real struggles facing Nevada's working families,” stated Yerushalmi.

What may help here is that Yerushalmi does have a good background as a small business guy, and that he's already had experience gaining bipartisan support. Mark Hutchison, on the other hand, is nothing more than a radical right bomb thrower who was Jim Gibbons' hand picked man to fight health care reform in court. Now, Hutchison is the Republicans' hand picked man to run for Senate in this district.

Make no mistake, this will be an epic battle... But this is nonetheless a battle Democrats can definitely win.

Is It Over Just Yet?

Mitt Romney may be trying hard to crown himself as "the chosen one", but it may really not be over just yet. Rick Santorum is now hiring Nevada staff, and he's making noise about staying in the race for more primary and caucus contests to come. I guess that's why he's turning up the TEA-nuttery in New Hampshire and repeating the odious radical right lie about how much the working poor pay in taxes (and staying mum on how little big multinational corporations pay).



But wait, isn't Mitt "the establishment pick" with all the money and all the resources to lock this up and do so quickly? Perhaps so, but the G-O-TEA base won't let him.

Romney, who is expected to win in New Hampshire, still remains the leading candidate — but not a candidate with groundswell support from Republicans, said Eric Herzik, the chairman of the political science department at the University of Nevada, Reno.

“I’m not the only person saying this, but he (Romney) started the race (in Iowa) with 25 percent of the vote, and he ended the race with 25 percent of the vote,” said Herzik, a registered Republican. “That says Republicans have not warmed up to Mitt. And that is why Santorum is the next and probably last of the great evangelical conservative challengers.”

The fractured vote in Iowa showed that the Republican Party has issues, Herzik said.

“This is a party that is split among social conservatives, fiscal conservatives and those with antigovernment feelings, so the message of the Republican Party is not clear coming out of Iowa,” he said.

Unfortunately for Romney, Herzik is right. The G-O-TEA base is just not that into Mittens. No matter how hard his campaign tries to spin it into something else, that's what the Iowa results revealed.

How else could a candidate like former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who nearly beat the alleged frontrunner Romney in Iowa, actually compete after being in the single digits at the beginning of December? Voters have to really know they don’t want the conventional pick if they’ll go with someone who they really just heard about in the last few weeks of campaigning, even if Santorum did commit to retail politicking in the state.

The main idea seems to be that the GOP fractioning seen over the life of the Obama administration, from the real beginnings of the Tea Party movement, is really showing. If the same percentage of Republicans would be enthusiastic about Paul as they would be about Romney, then the field has reached a sort of ideological parity within the party — the proponents of the conventional choice no longer outnumber the rabble rousers. Of course, the idea would be to find a candidate that can unite the two, but as 2012 has shown, that candidate isn’t in the running.

And already, the same looks to be emerging in New Hampshire as well.

The "enthusiasm gap" has returned... But this time, it's the Republican Party that's suffering from it. They're still wrestling over what to do about Mitt. They know he's the "favorite son" of the Wall Street elite, but they also know he's hiding some deep, dark secrets in his tax returns that could come back to bite all of them later this fall. Oh, and there's that little "vulture capitalist" firm by the name of Bain Capital.

Bain Capital has been responsible for thousands of layoffs at companies it bankrupted, such as American Pad & Paper, Dade International, and LIVE Entertainment, which Romney’s stat completely leaves out. He’s also taking credit for jobs created long after he left the firm to launch his political career. To sum it up, the stat Romney uses [to claim he's a "job creator"] is incredibly dishonest, like much of his jobs rhetoric.

One of Romney’s Bain business partners has said that he “never thought of what I do for a living as job creation.” “The primary goal of private equity is to create wealth for your investors,” he added. And Bain has certainly done that, maximizing earnings “by firing workers, seeking government subsidies, and flipping companies quickly for large profits.” Due to a lucrative retirement deal, Romney is still making millions from Bain, as he goes across the country calling himself “middle class” and joking about being “unemployed.”

Despite Rick Santorum's constant attacks on the 99%, he's now seen by conservatives as "the blue collar guy" who's more relatable to "Middle America" than that white-collar, coastal, Bain Capital elitist. And that's telling. I guess some of these Republicans are starting to publicly admit they will have a major image problem if Romney emerges as their nominee. In an election when not just the nebulous, overarching theme of "the economy", but also the specific worries about income inequality and the slow decay of America's middle class, will be front and center, it just won't look right for the Republican nominee to be boasting of how much money he made while laying off American workers and shipping their jobs overseas.

One big mistake I've noticed in most "mainstream media" coverage of the Republican primary is the dismissal of Rick Santorum as a "One Issue Wonder" who's only claim to fame/infamy is his extreme religious right zeal. Now yes, that really is a big part of who he is as a politician. However, don't "misunderestimate" Santorum's ability to cut through the cultural divide on the right and appeal to those G-O-TEA "culture warriors" looking not just for someone who hates women and gays and people of color, but also someone who seems "populist" and in touch with them (even if Santorum's actual economic policies are just as pro-Wall Street-elite as Romney's). And no matter what ultimately happens to Santorum in the coming weeks, Romney's "99% problem" isn't going away any time soon.

Obama, Obstruction, & Occupy

Today, on the heels of last night's buffet of crazy, President Obama is making a big power play.

The White House confirmed Wednesday morning that President Obama will announce a recess appointment for Richard Cordray to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at a speech in Ohio later today. Cordray was a well-liked Ohio Attorney General until last year, after he was toppled by the GOP midterm wave in 2010.

Cordray’s an accidental victim of a brazen act of GOP obstruction. They’re refusing to allow an up-or-down vote on any CFPB nominee until the agency itself is fundamentally weakened — an extra-legal attempt to nullify a key portion of an act of law. [...]

Though the Obama administration has made a couple dozen recess appointments since 2009, only a tiny fraction have been for officials in truly crucial positions, and none have occurred in the past year. This has frustrated progressives and good government advocates who worry that the executive branch has become riddled through like Swiss cheese with vacancies and can’t function properly.

So what does this mean? Well, the CFPB can finally function more properly. We know the G-O-TEA faction in Congress kept filibustering Cordray in hopes of weakening CFPB and ultimately undoing financial regulatory reform. In addition, Richard Cordray himself really seemed to scare the Wall Street beholden G-O-TEA-nuts.

[...] Cordray has a clear pro-consumer record, and has not been afraid to challenge the banks, making him an ideal candidate to lead the bureau when it officially stands on its own this week.

He was at the forefront during the foreclosure fraud scandal, and was “the first to sue a mortgage lender over incidents of foreclosure fraud,” launching a suit against GMAC Financial. “What we’re talking about here is not just sloppy paperwork,” Cordray said at the time. “We’re talking about fraud in a court of law. The [foreclosure document signers] were lying under oath, to a judge.” He’s called the foreclosure practices of the nation’s biggest banks “a business model built on fraud.”

As attorney general, he supported efforts to rein in payday loans, one of the most pernicious financial products. Cordray backed legislation to cap the interest rate that payday lenders could charge and sought the ability for his office to prosecute unlicensed lenders.

The financial industry is already up in arms about his nomination, with one attorney who represents the industry saying that of all the bureau’s officials, Cordray “frightens me the most.” Another derided him as having “all the hard edge and ambition of Warren without the charm.” [Consumer watchdog and now US Senate candidate Elizabeth] Warren herself supports the choice of Cordray, writing in an op-ed today that “he will make a stellar director.”

So do we really need any more evidence as to who stands with the 99%? Seriously. Look at who's allowed Wall Street to turn into an unregulated casino. And look at who wants to clean up the mess there and restore confidence in the American economy. Look at who best serves the wants of the 1%. And look at who best looks out for the needs of the 99%.

Today, President Obama decided to finally make a move and take action to ensure the CFPB gets up and running. In other words, he again did something for the 99%. And the G-O-TEA? Well, even Republicans acknowledge their own "leaders" are nothing more than agents of the top 1%... And they're still crazy, too.

Sorry, Mittens. It Ain't Over 'til It's Over.

So Mitt Romney won... By eight votes??!! And we're supposed to crown him "inevitable"? He's the big "winner", even though he only mustered the same support he got in Iowa four years ago?

Take a look at this map, then look at this map... And then, look at the exit poll. Looking at what happened in Iowa yesterday, it's looking increasingly clear that the Republican Party is a house divided against itself. As much as Mitt Romney is trying to ignore the battle on his own turf, the Iowa results prove that he really can't.

Is that why he has to resort to using deranged TEA-nut extremists as his campaign surrogates? And is that why Romney won't acknowledge the reality that continues to stare at him?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And is that why he has to resort to lying about President Obama?

First, there’s no comparison between President Obama’s rescue of the American automotive industry and Romney orchestrating leveraged buyouts at his vulture-capitalist firm. Obama wasn’t trying to profit; Romney was trying to make himself and his investors rich.

Second, Romney now claims to have created “over 100,000 jobs” at his vulture-capitalist firm, but he appears to have made this number up out of whole cloth. Keep in mind, just a few weeks ago, when Romney’s Super PAC ran an ad claiming he “helped create thousands of jobs” as CEO at Bain, Super PAC officials were asked to back that up with evidence. They refused. Fact-checkers haven’t been able to substantiate the claim in any way.

Third, Romney seems eager to boast about his record in Massachusetts, but that’s a mistake. His administration’s record on job creation was “one of the worst in the country,” ranking 47th out of 50 states in job growth. It’s one of the reasons Romney left office after one term deeply unpopular, and why his former constituents don’t want him near the White House.

I guess he just can't run on his own record.

Of course, Romney has tried to spin his private sector role as that of a “job creator.” But a closer look at Bain’s modus operandi reveals that firm spent a lot of time laying off company employees rather than hiring them — all while turning a profit. More than 20 years ago, Bain — with Romney at the helm — opened a new plant in Gaffney, South Carolina with the promise of “highly anticipated manufacturing jobs,” only to shut down that plant four years later, laying off 150 workers while making millions [...]

“In the real world, some things don’t make it,” Romney offered as an explanation for the layoffs he had overseen as Bain’s CEO. However, the plant in South Carolina is not an isolated incident. Under Romney, “four of the 10 companies Bain acquired declared bankruptcy within a few years, shedding thousands of jobs.” But documents show that “Bain investors profited in eight of the 10 deals, including three of the four that ended in bankruptcy.” Indeed, the firm pointedly made higher profits “by firing workers, seeking government subsidies, and flipping companies quickly for large profits.”

As Romney’s own business partner stated, “I never thought of what I do for a living as job creation.” It’ll be an interesting display of acrobatics to see how Romney explains to South Carolinians that the profit his company made off the backs of 150 laid off workers proves his bona fides as a job creator.

Mittens was hoping he could wrap up the G-O-TEA nomination last night so he could start distracting us from what he really did and what he really said. But funny enough, Rick Santorum simply won't let him. Apparently, Rick Santorum is now the G-O-TEA's "great 'white working class'/blue collar hope"! I guess that's why he recently went on his crazy @ss racist rant against imaginary black people on welfare?



Mittens thought he could wrap it all up last night, but he forgot. It ain't over 'til it's over.

And the Winner Is...

Well, it certainly isn't sanity!





And it isn't the 99%.

A close examination of all of the GOP candidates’ records and policy positions reveals that Mitt Romney is not the only candidate who “represents the one percent.” All of the Republican candidates share at least one thing in common: an economic agenda that will benefit the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans at the expense of the other 99 percent.

Each and every Republican candidate has called for trillions of dollars in new tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and corporations — all while calling for ending Medicare as we know it and dramatic cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, and countless other programs and services that Americans depend on each day.

All of the candidates would take us back to the Bush-era policies that increased income inequality, resulted in the worst job growth in decades, exploded the deficit and national debt, and ultimately crashed the economy. Indeed, the policies proposed by the candidates would not only embrace this failed economic agenda, they would take it even further.

Let's not forget what Mitt Romney has said about underwater homeowners in our own state.



No matter what the final results from Iowa are tonight, it's looking increasingly clear that sanity and equity did not win the day among Republicans there. So why do we even treat these looney tunes like "serious" candidates? The winner of Iowa's G-O-TEA caucus tonight is: CRAZY!!!

Live from Iowa... Well, Almost.

Tonight, I'll keep tabs of the Iowa Caucus results so you won't have to. Stay tuned for that, starting at 5:00 PM here at Nevada Progressive. And tomorrow morning, I'll have more of that "valuable" insight and analysis that you've come to love/loathe here.

Happy First Election Day of 2012! ;-)

NV-04: And I Thought Barbara Cegavske Was Nuts

Well, it looks like someone is already emerging to challenge Ms. Delusions of Grandeur for "New Leader of the TEA-nuts" title...



Ummm... How exactly is "Obama destroying the economy"? By ending the Iraq War that Dan Schwartz's G-O-TEA buddies so enthusiastically supported (diverting money that otherwise could have gone toward creating jobs here)?



By making health care more affordable and more accessible to more Americans (which the G-O-TEA still fights tooth and nail)?



By fighting to ensure middle class Americans get a tax cut (that the G-O-TEA nearly killed)?



What am I missing here? Oh yes, Obama's actual record of saving our economy versus this steaming pile of stupid. Oh, and I eagerly await Dan Schwartz and Barbara Cegavske to tell us whether they support their fellow G-O-TEA-nuts Dean Heller and Joe Heck in torpedoing our economic recovery and forcing more pain & suffering on middle class families, all in the name of "austerity".

Cheese, louise! Iowa hasn't even caucused yet, but already the stupid is piling up among NV-04 Republicans.

Happy New Year, Nevada!

Apparently, last night was a blast...



And here's to a better and more prosperous 2012! Happy New Year, and stay tuned for an exciting first week of 2012 here at Nevada Progressive. :-D